Pakistan · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Pakistan Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
This page in sign language
Signed end to end by a Deaf creator, credited by name. International Sign on the global site; your national sign language on your country page.
ally is a platform where creators make sign language, captions and audio description — and one API delivers it to any screen. We are looking for the partner who will build the Pakistani operation with us.
Why we are looking for a partner
One partner video — spoken, captioned and signed by a creator we already work with. It is shared across every open-market page. We do not fake a local signer to look established here.
The people
Pakistan's sign language is Pakistan Sign Language (PSL), unrecognised in any of the country's disability statutes. The Family Educational Services Foundation's Deaf Reach programme — schools since 2005 — built the first PSL dictionary, more than 6,000 signs, with animated stories and teacher tutorials, and put it online. PTV has carried sign language for decades, from <em>Boltay Haath</em> to signed news.
In plain words
Below is who lives here and what reaches them. Every number on this page is a research seed, not an audited claim — we mark them, rather than publish numbers we cannot yet stand behind.
Why captions alone do not close this gap → Why sign language
The mandate
assented by the President 22 September 2020, gazetted 24 September 2020: the first federal-level disability rights Act, for the Islamabad Capital Territory.
assented 11 June 2018; the most developed provincial regime.
the Balochistan Persons with Disabilities Act 2017 and the Punjab Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act 2022.
more than 6,000 signs, online, with animated stories and teacher and student tutorials; Deaf Reach schools since 2005.
Obligated buyers: public and private bodies under the ICT Act 2020 and the three provincial Acts, the state broadcaster, and — once any Act names PSL — whatever that instrument reaches.
The gap
Pakistani compliance is fragmented by design: Balochistan (2017), Sindh (11 June 2018), the federal capital (22 September 2020) and Punjab (2022) each have their own Act, and none names PSL. Accessibility is a duty in four jurisdictions and sign language a right in none. The dictionary exists because the community built it; the interpreter supply does not, because nothing requires it.
What we bring
These are patterns, not promises — each one happened somewhere, and each carries its source. The place is abstracted because the pattern is what transposes.
Pattern
A replicable template: the ordinance language, the budget logic and the service behind it travel together. Any city can copy it.
Two city ordinances — one on healthcare accessibility, one on cinema accessibility — have passed first reading, with ally as technical partner.
Receipt: Parañaque City Council records
Pattern
The platform exists before the first contract. Buyers pay for a service, not for research.
ally's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact
Pattern
Real usage, real feedback, and the model for any school or district that wants signed content on what students already watch.
A telco-funded 2021 pilot brought the platform to a Deaf school community of about 800 users.
Receipt: company fact
We publish our signals — including the zeros — on the impact page.
The partnership
The structure is a licensed market operation, built with the local community. Terms are discussed directly.
The playbook
The partner
Operators with standing in accessibility, media, telecom, or government services. Deaf-led organisations and entrepreneurs are explicitly welcome — the best operator of an accessibility market may come from the community itself. Investors are welcome alongside an operator, or to introduce one.
Why now
Four Acts in five years means the legislative appetite exists and the next amendment is a matter of drafting. A partner who can show PSL delivered at scale, with the community's own dictionary as the standard, gives any province the model to write the language into its Act — and the supply to meet it.
Next step
Write to us — by form, by email, or with a signed or spoken video message. From there: an introductory call, an NDA, the Pakistani market dossier, then terms.
Questions